Namida no Ondo
by InsaneKAT
Summary: He picked me up when he was most weak, dropped me when I was most weak and he was most strong. I had trusted him, danced to his music, and payed the price. But I'm not the past 'me' any more. For Chrome's birthday. Songfic for 'Namida no Ondo'.


**AN. **No, don't kill the author. I had been busy.

So… quick catch up. I had the weirdest/best birthday ever, got the 6 Vongola original Rings and a Vongola Sky Ring ver. X, finished my ABRSM, have two concerts in December, finished a drawing by plotting points on Excel, read Harry Potter and finished all the movies except for number 2.

**Title: **English translation is 'Tear's Temperature'. Personally, I think of it much, but it's better than the other one, which sounds like she has the backbone of a octopus. This one is from the album 'Dai 3 Dan [Mukuro/Chrome]' and the partner song is '記憶の果て', a Mukuro Character song.

**Prompt: **Chrome's birthday. Now that I think of it, I should have left 'Bloody Prince' to Belphegor's birthday. Shame.

**Timeline/setting: **This might be confusing, because I never mentioned any specific dates. Let's just say… after the Varia Arc, the Future Arc never existed (as usual), and when Sawada first makes an appearance, he's somewhere in high school.

**Point of view: **Chrome.

**Mistakes: **I think I overdid the Mukuro-evilness. I originally planned it a bit like a 6996, but I don't do romance, and my mind kept drifting to the piece 'Stalemate', which is also a kind of 9669. Also, I realize that most of the scenes do not match. THIS IS NOT INTENDED, but it's hard to just read lyrics and try to conjure up an interesting scene.

Also, this one is in a slightly different format than Bloody Prince, which describes one scene with the song cut into ribbons stuck between. Every little ribbon shows the end of one scene and the starting of another, which I hope won't be too hard to read. It's in chronological order, so I guess it won't. If there is any difficulty, please tell me, because I'm preparing another one for and it's a little similar.

**Language/rating: **As much as I would like a T-rated one, I'm afraid it's another K+ for me. Gosh, my list of stories is starting to like a children's collections – you don't know _how much I want to write an M-rated one!_

If there's anything else wrong, feel free to tell me. Flames will be used to roast marshmallows with Byakuran. Yes, I know he's getting fat, but he ate that much in the anime/manga too, didn't he? That's anime logic for ya, and Icy, don't kill me. You know it's true.

**DISCLAIMER: **I do not own the characters of Katekyo Hitman Reborn. All belongs to Akira Amano apart from the plot.

**NAMIDA NO ONDO****  
><strong>**涙の温度**

_Alone, I've gotten tired  
>Of staring at the end of the deep darkness<br>I also don't know a place where I can go back to  
>I'm standing here like a lost child<em>

Running… 

I'm always running… always looking back in fear… 

She looked around. Lost again. This is why she didn't like Namimori – it was a maze compared to the single road she called 'the road to home'.

_The meaning of the warmth, just like the past that turned into a lie  
>Feeling the temperature of tears, it's painful...<em>

A girl crouched in the shadows of a large tree, feeling exposed and weak even though there was no one after her. Her lip was bleeding and swollen when she had bit it to prevent sobs from breaking through her lips. Tears joined the moisture of the morning dew beneath her knees. Her Mist Ring glinted on her long fingers, and her trident was sticking up from the ground beside her.

"Was it all a illusion…?"

"Mukuro… Mukuro-sama…" She cried for her savior as she wept in loneliness and fear, but this time, nobody answered. Her voice didn't echo, didn't even sound steady.

_"Good-bye" is said for the frightened past me  
>To the place where the light breaks off<br>I want to say "thank you" because I have important people  
>Exceeding the sadness, I want to protect it forever<em>

There was no one else around them, even as the battle raged onwards. The rest of the guardians were engaged in furious skirmishes, blasts of flame shooting up from all directions like a firework display. The only two that weren't in a hurry to stab someone stood in the center of all the chaos.

"You were never weak." Mukuro whispered in her ear as his free hand snacked its way to the fallen trident had lain forgotten on the ground. "You did well."

But she knows it's a lie. She never did anything well. She never even did anything.

Chrome nodded weakly against his black trench coat as blackness once again swam in her vision like a swarm of locusts. "Thank you, Mukuro-sama."

When are they going to stop lying to her?

_The memory that's closed by eyelids  
>Waking it up is the time's prank<br>Waking up from a nightmare  
>Even if I hide, I'll still be found<em>

It was the usual perfect place, with streams and trees and grass, but there was a tension to the air that made her so nervous. Mukuro stood away from her, her trident in his hand, heterochromatic eyes bearing an unusual air of indifference, coldness, and… disgust?

"Please…" She started, but it was lost in the icy look her savior gave her.

Mukuro turned around. "Leave."

Chrome jerked awake on the sofa she had dozed on. A couch away, Ken was snoring and drooling all over his own little space, completely oblivious to the stream of hot tears running down her cheeks in haphazard waterfalls.

The next day, Dokuro Chrome left Kokuyo quickly and quietly. Kokuyo didn't pay any attention to her missing presence. That very same day, Mukuro arrived, and the mystery of Chrome was drowned under the shock and happiness from the Kokuyo gang.

_The location of the key of the obstinate closed heart  
>Is guided by the kind eyes<em>

She wades through the tall grass rather ungracefully, stripped of her usual green uniform and instead wearing a black dress, even if it was the middle of summer. Up ahead, Tsuna was running towards her, disheveled hair even more tangled, yelling with his arms waving about.

She stopped. No. She didn't want to meet her used-to-be-boss like this. But it was too late to run.

Tsuna, despite all the comments about his lack of physical stamina, had reached her while she stood frozen in shock. He doubled over, panting heavily, and it was several minutes before he even got back his voice.

Caramel eyes opened, meeting the single indigo orb shining with anxiety. He held out a closed fist, then opened it, revealing the Mist Ring which she had left on his doorstep (along with her tears) that morning.

"Please come back?"

It took more coaxing and comforting and pleading for her to wear it, and by the time she did, the blue sky did seem even more brighter.

_Even when all the truth that is reflected in the eyes disappear  
>The memories won't disappear forever<br>From the heart, from the heart, because I have the people I loved  
>I won't be afraid of parting, I'll become stronger<em>

When Reborn died, Chrome didn't know whether to feel sad or indifferent. The baby had never been much concern of hers, and she had hardly ever been on his mind. In fact, many times, Chrome would be visited by the illusion that the Arcobaleno wasn't actually aware of her presence.

Her boss, however, was devastated. He would be heard sobbing uncontrollably in his room, his Storm Guardian beside him, trying his best to comfort him and reassure the hysterical head of Vongola. The other Guardians were also affected rather severely, but Chrome would just be standing there, her eye showing no more and no less than compassion and mild sadness and worry.

It was several days before the boss had finally started eating and doing daily activities. All his paperwork had been postponed and slowly worked through by Gokudera, Yamamoto, and Hibari, who were most capable of sorting out formal Mafia matters.

Tsuna would usually be sitting in the gardens, holding Reborn's weird hat, turning it this way and that, his eyes deep with memories. Occasionally, he might let out a rare chuckle at a particularly interesting recount on his childhood with the Sun Arcobaleno, but the rest of the time he would just be turning the hat in his hands. In fact, so frequently did he do so, he must have had all the measurements and requirements that are necessary for making an identical replica.

One day, when he was in the gardens, he had started sobbing.

Not knowing what else to do, leaving the boss there not being a choice, the Mist Guardian walked up and knelt in front of Tsuna.

"Please smile, boss." She told him gently. "Reborn-san isn't completely gone – as long as he holds a place in our hearts, he shall be among us."

Tsuna looked up with a start, tears still running down his cheeks.

"You're strong boss, and you have people to protect." Chrome continued, this time more firmly. "Please don't cry, boss."

And he did.

It comforted her to this day still that, for once, she had the strength to help someone in need, even if the someone was her boss.

_Scattered around, the future that's pointed by the star  
>Wishing the temperature of tears, it's warm...<em>

She would watch the skies as often as possible, mostly at night, when she would count the stars and draw diagrams with the winking spots so far away.

_"Good-bye" is said for the frightened past me  
>To the place where the light breaks off<br>I want to say "thank you" because I have important people  
>Exceeding the sadness, I want to protect it forever<em>

"I am not weak." She fought calmly through the mass of enemies that were closing in on her like walls of flesh. Her trident tore through limbs and rendered people useless as she held her ground, moving only when the mass of injured enemies had started to slow down her movements.

"You certainly aren't." Yamamoto commented dryly from behind her, his flame-covered sword skillfully dicing up the badly-trained wannabe ninjas. "Now that you have people to protect. Watch my back for me, 'kay?"

_Even when all the truth that is reflected in the eyes disappear  
>The memories won't disappear forever<br>From the heart, from the heart, because I have the people I loved  
>I won't be afraid of parting, I'll become stronger<em>

"You certainly have changed." Commented Mukuro absent-mindedly from the sofa he was lounging on like a throne.

"Way to state the obvious, Sherlock." She retorted.

Mukuro smiled a warm smile. "More braver than ever, my _dearest _Chrome. Kokuyo would need a fighter like you. Would you –"

The tip of her trident found his throat before he even blinked twice as the once-Kokuyo gang member said calmly, "You tossed me away when I was weakest and you were strongest because you had no need for me. Now, when you are weakest and I am strongest, I have the right to turn you down."

Mukuro put a pained look on his face that was so pleading and heartbroken that the Mist Guardian had to fight not to cave in to her old master. "But Chrome –"

His eyes, she reminded herself. Look into his eyes. Eyes always betray the truth.

She did, and all she saw was cold calculation.

The violet-haired girl – no – _woman_ removed the trident from the son of a imbecilic rat. "I am not a toy of yours any more, not the weak little girl you played with and threw away because I was weak. I can protect now, and I shall protect _people, _not rats in rabbit's clothing."

Mukuro looked stunned. His duo-colored eyes, however, seemed to show fear and uncertainty. "Look, I'm s– "

She turned away from the indigo-haired man. "You are half a decade too late if you had wanted me back."

No longer was she a weak Kokuyo Gang member or a vessel for Mukuro. She was Dokuro Chrome, the Mist that cannot be captured, one of the six guardians appointed to protect the boss.

No longer did she feel any sadness or shed any useless tears over leaving the pineapple-headed bastard. She was no longer afraid, for she was strong.


End file.
